Yesterday (Sunday) I hiked Signal Knob, a historical ridge in the Shenandoah Valley used for communications in the United States Civil War in the 1860s. The walk was ten miles and took 5 1/2 hours. The trail was a mixture of dirt, rock, snow, and ice, so the footing wasn't sure. My left knee ached the last few hours of the hike, probably due to a bit of arthritis. It was good to be outdoors in the brisk mountain air.

When I arrived him I ran the requisite 9 minutes (see the running schedule in Training for a marathon), since I didn't get the running out of the way in the morning. The running could have been gruesome, since the left knee was throbbing from the hike. Surprisingly, however, the run felt good. The running seemed to loosen up kinks and knots developed during the long walk.

Running shoes are lightweight compared to hiking boots. My hiking boots are ancient: Vasque mountain climbing boots, the old style boots with the leather uppers, leather interiors, steel shank, and heavy waffled Vibram soles. They're 30 years old - older than most E2 readers - and they weigh about 2 lb apiece. When I changed into running shoes and began running, I felt as if I had wings. The light running shoes made running so much easier compared to the boots. It was as if I had trained with ankle weights and then ran without them.

I may add a post-hike run to the weekday hiking regimen, as yesterday's results were quite satisfactory.

The Sunday evening air was cold and crisp. Overhead, a million stars gleamed, and the almost-full moon was so perfectly bright it looked like a man-made object. No one was out, so I ran alone. Everyone else was inside their warm homes watching television and winding down their weekends, so I had the streets to myself.

Health wise, my breathing's gotten slightly better, although this bronchial wheezing is still persistent. I still feel far too full around the middle. I started this marathon training around 230 lb. Today the weight is 220 lb., but my weight fluctuates fairly wildly, so this is within a normal standard deviation of my weekly weight. The real weight loss and health improvements will begin when the daily running time is over half an hour. That's when nirvana begins. All this is prelude.

I don't know how to edit daylogs to add forward links, but I can give you some recent links to previous running writeups: